Archive for the "Neuroplasticity" Category
Brain Change and Potential for Growth
At Gemm Learning we often refer to brain plasticity when speaking to families. It is the reason our software has been so effective as well as the inspiration for its creation. Miriam-Webster defines neuroplasticity or brain plasticity as the brain’s ability to adapt and change throughout life. This means that the capacity to learn is not static and that new pathways will form to adjust to cha…
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Michael Merzenich Wins the Kavli Prize
Michael Merzenich, co-founder of Fast ForWord, has won the $1 million Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, which administers the prize, announced earlier this month that Merzenich and two other researchers are being honored this year for their work on neuroplasticity.
Merzenich, along with Eve Marder and Carla Shatz, challenged the assumption that the bra…
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Neuroplasticity (or Brain Plasticity) Is Real
Before neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, was discovered, early psychologists, psychiatrists, and educational professionals were baffled by the existence of learning disabilities such as auditory processing disorder (APD), dyslexia and ADHD. For many years, such conditions were not even sufficiently understood to be able to give them a name, much less recommend a successful course of treatme…
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How to Explain Neuroplasticity to Your Mom
Neuroplasticity is all the rage these days. The scientific consensus on what exactly the human brain is capable of — based on growing evidence linking neuroplasticity and learning growth — has been turned upside down over the last couple decades.
According to psychiatrist and bestselling author Norman Doidge, “Everything having to do with human training and education has to be re-examined…
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The 3 Big Breakthroughs in the History of Remedial Reading
While the reading proficiency stats still make dismal reading — 30% of 8th graders are still not reading at a basic level according to US Education stats — there have been tremendous advances in our understanding of reading and what constitutes effective remedial reading.
In the course of human history, reading is a relatively recent development. It’s not a natural skill — there is no re…
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Harnessing Neuroplasticity To Narrow Achievement Gaps
In a recent New York Times article, columnist Nicholas Kristof wonders whether we are spending adequate resources on early education. We believe the answer to this question is a resounding “no”. Our vision is to target skill gaps early on using interventions that take advantage of brain plasticity and thereby eliminate the frustration of a lifetime of learning difficulties shared by milli…
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